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Monday, December 10, 2012

Jackson do Pandeiro - O Dono Do Forró - part two - Morena Bela and coletânea LP appearances in the early 70s

Jackson do Pandeiro - O Dono Do Forró - part two - Morena Bela and coletânea LP appearances in the early 70s

Jackson do Pandeiro - Morena Bela - from O Dono Do Forró - CBS - 1971

Click on the video above to play the song.

Morena Bela (Onildo Almeida – Juarez Santiago) is easily the most famous song from O Dono Do Forró. It's pop majesty from the finest of all forró LPs, featured here in part one of my two part entry.Coletânea LP appearances in the time of O Dono Do ForróI’m going to take a little detour and feature some fine songs that Jackson recorded for compilations in the early 70s just before and after O Dono Do Forrówas released. In the 4 years that Jackson
was signed CBS, he appeared on at least 8 different compilation albums
on various labels. This creates an interesting challenge for collectors,
because forró artists like Jackson do Pandeiro, Genival Lacerda
and the entire stable of artists that recorded for CBS created a lot of
exclusive material for compilations only, most commonly called a
coletânea in Brazil. Occasionally, exclusive material was released on
singles, but that was much less common in Brazil than in North America
or Europe, particularly with forró. Jackson do Pandeiro
appeared on at least 20 or 30 of these coletânea (compilation /
collection) LPs during his lifetime, often with 2 songs on each. Almost
none of these songs were on his albums, or if they were, they were
often entirely different versions. Jackson do Pandeiro - Bota Gás No Lampião - from Pau De Sebo vol. 5 - CBS - 1971

Click on the video above to play the song.

If ever there was a perfect bonus track for a reissue of O Dono Do Forró, this is it. CBS released a yearly compilation of northeastern artists called Pau de Sebo. Jackson first appeared on Pau de Sebo volume 5 in 1971, but wasn’t satisfied with his first recording, Bota Gás No Lampião (Severino Ramos / Assis Barros / Zé Turquinho). His primary complaint seemed to be that his voice was buried in the mix. The song sounds like a first attempt at Eu Não Vou Chorar from O Dono Do Forró. Regardless of Jackson’s complaints, Bota Gás No Lampião is
a stunning record with gorgeous reverb, a deep mix and killer
instrumentation. It outclasses just about everything on the compilation
and sounded tremendously better than his Fontana / Philips recordings
from the previous year (see O Festa No Arraial below).
Pau de Sebo literally means greased pole. Besides it’s wink-wink
meaning, it is a game in which the participant has to climb a pole
slathered in grease / fat to snatch a prize at the top. The game of Pau
de Sebo is part of an old pagan summer solstice tradition, co-opted by
the Catholic church in the Middle Ages. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pau_de_sebo.
Pau de Sebo was the longest ongoing compilation series in forró, with
15 volumes of exclusive material released between 1967 and 1981. Early
volumes (vol. 1 - 4) and the Jackson years (vol. 5 - 8) were especially strong. After Jackson left CBS, the series seemed to lose heart.

O Nosso Amor Gorou(José Gomes Filho - Aloysio Vinagre - Assumpção Corrêa) is a decent tune in the carnival march style, recorded shortly after Jackson do Pandeiro’s 2nd album for CBS, Sina de Cigarra. Carnival compilations have been released since the 50s on a variety of labels and Jackson appeared on quite a few. Although this was not forró, it is important to point out that Jackson was a master of multiple styles in a way that few other artists have ever been in Brazil. José Gomes Filho, one of the writers of O Nosso Amor Gorou, is Jackson’s real name.

O Festa No Arraial(Jackson do Pandeiro / Noca da Portela) is a great little catchy tune recorded right before Jackson changed labels to CBS and recorded O Dono Do Forró. Notice the difference in the quality of the recordings between the Fontana and CBS tunes. O Festa No Arraial,
released in mono, sounds like it could have been recorded in the 50s.
The sound quality went from black and white to full mantis shrimp color
in one year. However charming O Festa No Arraial was AND how brilliant Jackson was at overcoming the limitations, It’s fairly shocking how shabby the sound was compared to Bota Gás No Lampião. I imagine that forró simply didn’t sell enough copies to justify a big recording budget from Fontana. Dig the Beatles inspired LP cover artwork.